Paulina Villareal. Greatest drummer on the earth
One of many perks of dwelling in Mexico is publicity to the unbelievable younger expertise on this nation. In my different job, editor of a bilingual newspaper, I see quite a lot of tales about alerted Mexican youth and go to occasions that includes very, very expert Mexican younger folks, particularly ladies and ladies.
Whether or not it’s Amanda Enciso Jacbo, the 14-year previous lead singer of native mariachi with the voice of a educated opera singer and the stage presence of Araina Grande, or the 20-something Carmen Perez who based a movie competition and movie faculty and video firm whereas working full-time, or the 11-year previous ladies who trip massive quick horses within the Escaramuza Mexican rodeo occasion realizing that if one member of the 8-women crew is a number of inches off or a number of seconds late they may all go down in a pile of writhing horses and damaged bones, younger Mexican ladies blow you away.
One ladies who’s blowing away the rock world is 22-year previous Paulina Villarreal Vélez, the multi-instrumentalist drummer for the purple sizzling Mexican rock band The Warning, made up of Villareal and her two equally gifted sisters.
I have written about Villareal and the band The Warning earlier than, however they’re now touring internationally and racking up audiences, streams and awards like by no means earlier than, so I believed I might placed on my headphones, stream their album Hold Me Fed (156 million streams)and take one other have a look at the band and its drummer/primary songwriter Paulina Villarreal Vélez.
As a little one Villareal was taught classical piano (which she nonetheless performs), however started her life-changing drums classes on the age of six, So she had been enjoying drums for five years when she and her sisters fashioned The Warning in 2013 as a household enjoyable exercise across the Rock Band online game. The three sister – Daniela “Dany” Villarreal Vélez, Paulina “Pau” Villarreal Vélez, and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal Vélez – put their videogame exercise on YouTube after which took off after posting a viral video cowl of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” in 2014.
Since then, they’ve launched a number of albums mixing laborious rock, different rock, and heavy metallic, drawing inspiration from bands like Metallica, Muse, and Queen. They started touring with bands like Muse, Foo Fighters, and Weapons N’ Roses. They usually grew to become cultural ambassadors for Mexico, with options in Self-importance Truthful and Folks.
Villarreal stepped into the cultural ambassador function in 2014 – a 12 months after the band was fashioned when she was profiled within the ladies’s drumming publication Tom Tom Journal and acquired reward from Kirk Hammett of Metallica for her drumming.
In 2022, Villareal was invited to show a Drum and Composition masterclass on the Sound:Verify Xpo occasion in Mexico. In 2024, Villarreal debuted as an inventive director by creating and directing the official video for the tune “Qué Más Quieres.” She sang the lead within the band’s “Narcisista” at Teatro Metropolitan in 2022 and sang “Eat” at Auditorio Nacional on this 12 months’s tour, and sang with Lifeless Poet Society on the Aftershock Pageant.
In September 2023, Villarreal was voted primary by readers of Fashionable Drummer within the “Up and Coming” class. Drumeo offered her the Rock Drummer of the Yr award in February 2024. A month later she acquired the Decididas World Award on the 2024 Decididas Summit. She was honored for her contribution to the Mexican music trade and society, and for standing out as an exemplary chief who seeks to encourage extra younger ladies to pursue their goals. And she was chosen to be included in The 100 strongest ladies in Mexico by the Mexican version of Forbes journal.
That may be a hell of a narrative for a 22-year-old drummer who, together with her sisters, is a fantastic instance of the unbelievable younger ladies rising up in Mexico.
Patrick O’Heffernan
Associated